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Vlad walked towards the large Territory Guardian Nest, which happened to be right behind the manor. The place used to be a beautiful garden of Night Roses, but after his Vampire Mother began to neglect the garden, they quickly died off. Before the Nest was placed, there was a large amount of Blood Vines, which trapped small animals and drained their blood, decorating the surrounding area with dried corpses and bones, which was quickly cleansed once Vlad found it the perfect spot for the nest.
Ever since then, Teressa had begun planting Night Roses once more, decorating the surrounding nest and giving it a slightly more regal appearance, as she found it too plain and shallow for something as glorious as a divine beast that would protect the entire territory.
"And here we are…" He said, looking at the big egg. "Ah, it's emanating a strong aura… I think it's ready to hatch!"
"W-What the hell is that?! A huge fucking egg?" Gofumina asked. "Is this your guardian?"
"Yeah, it'll hatch into some cute little pet!" Chris nodded. "Then that pet will grow stronger over time and will bless the entire city with special abilities, right? It was something like that, right?"
"I believe so, yes," Vlad nodded. "I guess you don't really know much about these hidden mechanics, but all of these things are part of the Territory Management System."
"Aah, that's interesting!" Emerlinda said. "Pretty amazing! But I don't know if I could put the time and effort to take care of a whole territory… do you like doing that, Vlad?"
"I don't mind; I've always liked civilization management games and things like that since I was a kid," Paul said. "So this felt pretty cool and refreshing, especially in what's supposed to be an MMORPG."
"You heard him," Chris nodded. "Anyway, does the nest have, like, a status? Is it really ready to hatch?"
"Let me see…"
Paul quickly opened the status of the Nest, giving him a brief description of all the information he needed to know about it for the moment.
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[Territory Guardian Nest]
[Building Type]: [Territory Guardian Facility]
[Building Level]: [1/10]
[Territory Guardian]: [Territory Guardian Beast Egg (Incubating: 00:00)] (Ready to hatch!)
[Level Up Requirements]: [1000 Gold] [3000 Lumber] [3000 Metals] [3000 Stone] [2000 Food] [500 Arcana]
{Building Description}
[A Territory Guardian Nest is the home of the territory's beast guardian, where they will live the majority of the time. In here they will be given food and shelter, and they will be able to glance at the territory at any time. To be able to raise a Territory Guardian Beast, this building is a must. With each Level, the Guardian will grow stronger and give the Territory more Bonuses.]
{Territory Guardian Bonus}
[Yet to be determined]
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"Huh, alright, so that explains pretty much everything very well, and the upgrade cost is… Acceptable with my current resources, I guess. But I need to hatch it first, and it is also available for hatching! We're already at the end of the week, I guess. Tomorrow is the decisive battle against the King of Lemuria… So we need as much strength and help as we can."
"Yeah, so how do we hatch this lil' guy?"
Chris floated above the egg and pointed at it with his finger, touching it only to receive a strong zap in the hand.
ZAAP!
"Ouch! W-What the hell?!"
He gasped as he noticed he had received some damage to his Avatar's body; the egg had some sort of self-defense mechanism even when it was just an egg!
"Formidable! That's not just any egg, huh?" Gofumina laughed. "Don't go around touching them, Alitheus! Hahaha!"
"Don't laugh!" Chris got slightly embarrassed. "Anyway, I guess I can't touch it, huh?"
"Y-Yeah, it seems only the owners can… That would be me or Teressa…" Paul said. "Alright… how do I…?"
As he climbed up the nest and walked towards the egg, he saw a new notification appear.
[Your {Territory Beast Guardian Egg} is ready to hatch!]
[Only the true owners of the Territory can hatch the {Territory Beast Guardian Egg} which will then become bonded to the one that infused it with their Arcana and other Compatible Energies.]
[By infusing these Energies into the egg, the {Territory Beast Guardian} has the chance to obtain new abilities or a stronger form based on how strong the owner is at the moment.]
[Things such as Divine Blessings or Curses might also affect the {Territory Beast Guardian} at random.]
[However, what the {Territory Beast Guardian} ends up hatching as is still up to luck and random and is not influenced by this "enhancement."]
[You qualify as the owner of the territory. Please touch the egg and imbue it with as many Energies as you possibly can. The more you infuse, the more chances you have that your Territory Guardian will be born with additional abilities or higher stats.]
{TOUCH IT!}
There was even a big, red-colored button saying, "Touch it!" as if it wasn't gamey enough, which made Paul slightly cringe. Everything felt so real, but sometimes the system had to get in the way of the immersion.
"Okay, so I can infuse it with my power so it can hatch much stronger…" He nodded. "Alright, stand back please; I'll start."
He stepped forward, touching the egg and feeling its warmth. Unlike with Chris, he wasn't attacked by some sort of thunderbolt or zapping attack, and he could feel the life of the little guy inside growing stronger and bigger.
"You're bigger than I imagined, hahah…"
As he giggled, he quickly released his Aura and infused it with everything he had into the egg.
FLUOOOSH!
First, he began infusing as much Arcana!
The Arcana emerged as a blue-colored, sparkling energy, wrapping around the egg and giving it a magical aura.
Next, Vlad infused the egg with his Blood Energy, coming from his very Blood Core, it was packed with great amounts of power.
The egg suddenly gained a reddish aura and even red-colored dots here and there…
"Now… let's go for the stronger energies."
He smiled, beginning to infuse the egg with the power of his Soul Essence, and also of his Spiritual Blood Ki!
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